Microsoft's original plan was to launch Age of Empires: Definitive Edition on October 19 of last year to commemorate the franchise's 20th anniversary. Unfortunately, there was a setback in the game's development, and the launch date was pushed to early 2018. Age of Empires aficionados can finally rejoice. Adam Isgreen, Creative Director at Microsoft, announced yesterday that the highly-anticipated remake is making its way to Windows 10 PCs on February 20 for $19.99. Adam also took the opportunity to remind us that the Definitive Edition isn't your normal everyday remake. It actually comes with many huge improvements like:

Completely rebuilding assets for a modern 4K presentation

Letting you play online with Xbox LIVE (in addition to LAN play)

Re-recorded the original soundtrack with a new orchestral score

Adding campaign narration for every mission

Enhancing the campaign and scenario editor, which allows anyone to make original custom campaigns for the game, by letting players easily share them with other players around the world via AgeOfEmpires.com

Additionally, Microsoft is allowing players to get some early action in a multiplayer environment. To be eligible, players need to sign up for the Age Insider Program. Microsoft will randomly pick the 100,000 participating players on Thursday January 25 at 9:00 am Pacific Time. The multiplayer beta officially kicks off on Monday January 29.

Exclusives in 2018 make no sense...even though I would really like to play this game, binding me to yet another platform with the GFWL memories still present iisnj't going to convince me. AoEII:HD will do fine until Empire Earth HD is also made.